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Total Recall (UK - BD RA/B)

Feature

Set in the not-too-distant future, Total Recall stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid, an average guy with a steady job in construction and a beautiful, loving wife (Sharon Stone). For reasons unknown to him, Quaid is having recurring dreams about Mars, strange alien artefacts, and a mysterious woman. In spite of warnings from his wife he takes a trip to Rekall Incorporated, a company that specialises in artificial memory implants. Along with the memory of his dream vacation on Mars, Quaid decides to go for the latest in virtual vacations, the 'ego trip'. This little optional extra allows a person to change the one thing about their vacation that is always the same—themselves. Opting for the persona of secret agent Quaid settles back for his trip, but he doesn’t bargain on something going wrong with the process...

After waking up in the back of a robotic cab with no memory of how he got there, Quaid finds himself the target of all manner of unpleasant characters. His construction co-workers try to kill him, and when he turns to his wife for help even she tries to do him in! On the run, not knowing whom to trust, he travels to Mars in an attempt to discover the truth about his past—but is Quaid really who he thinks he is, or is it all just part of the elaborate head-trip?

Total Recall is a refreshing blast from the past. At its heart it's an out-and-out action movie, but thanks to talented Dutch director Paul Verhoeven it is actually more intelligent than you might expect and repeated viewings will reveal hidden depths to the story, after which you begin to question the events in the film. Is Quaid's reality all it's cracked up to be, or is Quaid just cracking up? It's also an extremely violent movie, some would say excessively so, but this is to be expected from the director of such films as Robocop, Basic Instinct and Starship Troopers. The film is also famous for its many fantastic set-pieces, and once the action starts it doesn’t let up until the planet-shattering climax.

Acting is competent from most of the cast, especially from Ronny Cox (who is basically reprising his bad guy role from Robocop) and Michael Ironside. Ironside is one of those guys who is just, for want of a better word, cool. Arnie himself is on top form, spitting out corny one-liners while dispatching an army of evildoers without breaking a sweat. Total Recall is an effective antidote to the style-over-substance action films of today, and still holds up remarkably well almost two decades after its original release. The film’s slightly ambiguous ending is nicely done and helps set it apart from other examples of the genre. It is, in my opinion, the most enjoyable Schwarzenegger film of them all.

Video

Total Recall arrives with a 1080p VC-1 encoded 1.85:1 widescreen transfer that looks better than any of the previous DVD releases I've owned (three of them to be precise). Apart from the obvious benefits of the increased resolution, which reveals previously unseen detail in almost every shot and brings real depth to the image, the thing that most impressed me about this transfer was the colour rendition. In the past the DVD releases have looked a little drab (more so Momentum's PAL DVD than Artisan's NTSC effort), but the Blu-ray release is a dramatic improvement. The Martian reds always presented a problem for the DVD versions, but here they are positively vibrant and without any nasty compression artefacts. Flesh tones are accurately reproduced, or at least as closely as is possible within the stylised medium of film, and the various locations all look bright and colourful. Blacks are also nice and deep throughout, but without sacrificing shadow detail.

Mild grain is present throughout, but it's a natural part of the image and is never distracting. The image is also very clean, without a hint of edge enhancement or other digital nasties. I did spot a little bit of telecine wobble during the opening credits, but this disappeared once the film began. The image also appears to be framed differently than the DVD releases, with slightly less information on the bottom and left, but more at the top. You'd probably never notice unless you were comparing images side by side though. If I had to make one criticism it would be that the image is a little on the soft side, but to be honest that probably has just as much to do with the source material as anything else. All things considered this is a pretty great presentation that's a notch above most catalogue releases in the quality stakes.

Audio

Given that this release seems to be a port of the Studio Canal HD DVD, I was expecting to hear the infamous 'pitch shift' effect as reported on that disc. For those of you not familiar with this phenomenon, the soundtracks on certain Studio Canal HD DVD titles apparently sounded more like PAL DVDs (which run four percent faster than film) than the original tracks. I don't think anyone ever got to the bottom of whether this was a conscious decision by Studio Canal, or if it was a technical error, but it annoyed the hell out of some people.

Not everyone is sensitive to such a small change in pitch, but those that are can be driven mad by it. Actor's voices can sound like 'chipmunks' and music sounds very odd indeed. Many moons ago I used to DJ, so I find that I am usually able to detect speed/pitch differences in soundtracks, especially ones that I am familiar with. For example, the PAL releases of the Star Wars DVDs are all-but ruined by the sped-up John Williams scores, and the Burly Brawl in The Matrix Reloaded sounds like someone put it on fast forward (which technically I guess they did).

When reviewing this track I wanted to be as thorough as possible, so I compared the it to both my NTSC and PAL DVDs. Obviously such tests are far from scientific and entirely subjective, but I came to the conclusion that the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack on this disc was a closer match to the NTSC release than the PAL disc. There wasn't a lot in it, and it's possible that Momentum's PAL release was pitch corrected, but it still seemed a little quicker to me. I don't claim to have perfect pitch, so there's always the chance that my ears are deceiving me, but as far as I can tell this soundtrack isn't going to be like fingernails down a blackboard for the majority of people.

As for the DTS-HD track itself (of which I could only extract the Core element), well it's not bad, but it's not going to set the world alight. It's a front-heavy affair with easy to discern dialogue and some neat stereo panning effects, but dynamic range is slightly lacking resulting in a bit of a flat experience. Surround utilisation is, quite frankly, disappointing, with the rear speakers remaining silent for much of the running time. The situation improves towards the end of the movie, but the rears are still overpowered by the frontal array and are mostly used to enhance the presence of Jerry Goldsmith's score. Bass is relatively punchy for a film of this age, although it is hampered by the aforementioned lack of dynamic range. Once again, things improve as the film progresses, with highlights including the arrival of a rocket ship and the frequent explosions during the last act. I seem to remember the DVD versions having more aggressive sound design, so I was slightly disappointed with this track, but it gets the job done.

Extras

Well this is easy. Zip. Nothing. Not a sausage. There is a bonus menu, but all it contains is a video and audio calibration tool, which isn't really an extra in my book.

Overall

Total Recall is probably my favourite Arnie film, even surpassing stuff like Predator and the Terminator films in terms of sheer thrills and spills. Unfortunately this Optimum Blu-ray release misses a trick by effectively porting the Studio Canal HD DVD release. People aren't going to make the leap from DVD to Blu-ray when the latter contains zero bonus material, so studios really need to start offering more. I realise it's financially difficult for smaller distributors to compete with the big boys, but we're all struggling at the moment so distributors are going to have to offer more to compete for our attention (and money).

Although flawed I think this is probably the best Blu-ray version of Total Recall available. Lionsgate's US release apparently has an inferior video transfer (by quite some margin) and although the lack of bonus material on the Optimum disc is disappointing, it does at least contain a lossless soundtrack (even if it's not up to the standards set by the video transfer). The disc can be picked up very cheaply if you shop around, so if you're just looking for a technically competent version of a great action flick this should make a nice addition to your high-definition library.

Addendum: After I had finished writing this review I came across a forum post with audio examples of the the DVD and HD DVD releases that demonstrated the differences in pitch. After comparing this Blu-ray release to those samples I am confident that the track does not suffer from the pitch issues associated with the HD DVD release. If you would like to check the results yourself, simply click the following links to download the relevant .mp3 files (all files are under 106KB): Blu-ray, DVD, HD DVD.

* Note: The above images are taken from the Blu-ray release and resized for the page. Full-resolution captures are available by clicking individual images, but due to .jpg compression they are not necessarily representative of the quality of the transfer.

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Not an Optimum fan then? If you really want to blame someone it should be Studio Canal, because they're the parent company and the ones who supplied the master for this and many other Optimum releases. Is it perfect? No, but this BD is easily the best home version of Total Recall - there is no question about it. I can't comment on the in-depth audio analysis because it's not my area (although my review comments do support your statement), but the colour rendition is miles better and the framing is consistent throughout. It might differ from the DVD (bit tighter on the sides, framed slightly higher), but framing varies wildly between theatrical presentations and on many different DVD/BD releases. We're not talking Back to the Future style misframing here.

I stand by my comments that this is the best way to view the film in the home. Sure it could probably look better if it was remastered an re-encoded now, but things have improved a lot since the master for this release was created.

Well for those that don’t have golden ear! I just brought this lemon of Bluray wow what a waste of £10.00! This is the same version they used for the first edition region 2 DVD.

Well almost! If you mute or disconnect thou I can mute any channel in my sound system for monitoring. The monaural half frequency bandwidth seems to have been filtered off at around 500Hz with shallow slope. All the top end of the spectrum is missing!?

No this is not intentional and never in all, my years at listening to discrete Dolby or dts has there been a film with surrounds that sound like its playing though a sock!

Optimum Release UK have talent of producing piss poorly DVD and now Bluray and they are giving Bluray a bad name.

Listen to the surrounds on there own and you’ll hear the sound as if its been played though a sock! If you down mix to Dolby stereo its different matter because of the way the Dolby stereo matrix looks at the signal. The discrete way is the true way to hear it.

The films road show release was Dolby stereo SR format 42 and I doubt the 70mm print surrounds would sound like this.

Someone has really botched this up! It’s the same for first edition DVD region 2 if you listen closely. Not sure what the special edition version is like as they re-released it again on DVD.

Some parts of the music sounds muffed a few and only few effects seem to have mild top end around 1KHz?

The image is brighter over the DVD but there are some poor trade offs.

There appares to be some colour tint manipulation bwtween the two versions I have. I’d say the 35 to 70mm will be closer to it, the digital master video tape wow not even near.

Also the framing is all wrong? I mean how difficult can it be for one of these Muppets to frame W/S image? You have rake line top and bottom of each frame now the image should line up one to one nothing more and nothing less! sigh

I have just this tiny bit of advice! Stay clear of Optimum Release UK titles they are not worth money! I just can’t watch it myself anymore. Consumer video is not even close to professional!

Sorry the sentencing of this post is hard to read, I’ve been up all night and I have little issues like this to grumble about. Well after all its our money we throwing away at Optimum Release UK! Stay well clear of them!

It's a matter of opinion isn't it. You might not find it irritating, but I sure do, as do loads of other people (judging by the complaints levelled at the HD DVD release).

The whole point of highlighting the audio issue was to reassure those who hate the effect that all was well. If people don't notice it or don't care, good for them, but I don't think those of us that are sensitive to it should have to put up with it on a source that isn't inherently NTSC or PAL. Blu-ray is supposed to be close to the theatrical experience.

I work with audio (I compose music and do 5.1 mixes) and whilst I can detect 4% speed-up, it does not ruin a film at all. Its obvious, yes, but not too intrusive. As the previous poster said, Star Wars still sounds like Star Wars and all that.

Um, I'm not American. I live in the UK, which uses PAL, and I dislike the effects of PAL speed-up. Just because you can't hear the differences, doesn't mean they aren't there. Star Wars might sound like Star Wars, but it's a Star Wars that runs 4% faster and has an increased pitch that makes the music sound 'odd'. 4% might not sound like a lot, but it's half of the pitch control on a Technics deck and I could certainly tell when I'd increased or decreased a record's pitch by 4% back when I used to mix.

PAL doesn't automatically have a better picture than NTSC either, just more resolution. A good NTSC transfer will look better than a c**p PAL one. Of course that is totally irrelevant because this is a Blu-ray review and as such PAL/NTSC don't factor into it. The audio isn't supposed to be pitched up, regardless of what you're used to, so it was something that needed to be addressed in the review. The HD DVD release was flawed but thankfully it wasn't a problem with this BD release.

After some consideration I have decided to amend the video score as I think this is on a par with T2 in the video stakes.

I´m getting quite tired of all the bash it´s getting because of the 4% increase of speed and how this "screws" up our films here. People using NTSC, and who´ve never had the opportunity to compare the two, will probably think that we´re watching movies where every actor sounds like Mickey Mouse.

This isn´t the case.

Yes - there is an increase in speed. No - most people won´t even notice it. James Earl Jones still sounds as James Earl Jones, Arnie still sounds as Arnie, and Star Wars still sounds as Star Wars.

It´s funny though how most (americans) bringing this up alway seem to forget that PAL has the better picture compared to NTSC.....